Revisiting Magic: Magic in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Good morning gamers,

We're taking a brief aside today to do a write-up on an element of the new game that I've been thinking about for a while: the new magic system. For those familiar with the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game magic system, life isn't TOO different. However, my gaming group didn't adopt this system of magic, so there's quite a bit changed (and some of those changes will still apply to Hobbit SBG players). One of the most popular posts on our blog is a post I did back in 2013 on Ringwraiths and magic - you should look at it if you haven't gotten the chance.

Note: this post has been edited to reflect the Armies of the Hobbit errata that gave Curse to the Necromancer again.

As a basic overview, here's how we're going to talk about magic:

• Basics of Casting/Resisting
• What spells should I always Heroically Channel?
• What spells should I Heroically Channel sometimes?
• What spells should I never Heroically Channel?
• What spells currently can't be Heroically Channelled (even though it says they can)?

With that, let's dig in...

Basics of Casting/Resisting

Casting/resisting spells has remained mostly unchanged from version to version - spend Will points to get dice to attempt to cast the spells (1 Point of Will = 1 die) and if the casting requirement is met, the opponent spends Will points to get dice to attempt to resist the spell (same cost of Will per dice). In the Hobbit SBG system, each spell received a "channelled" version, which provided some benefit when the spell was "heroically channeled." In the Middle-Earth SBG game, heroic channelling has remained, but resisting spells got a bit easier:

• Resistant to Magic now benefits you whenever you get targeted by a spell (don't recall if this was in place during the Hobbit SBG era or not), instead of when you run out of Will;
• Heroic Resolve was added that allows all friendly models within 6" of the hero who called the heroic action to gain a free dice to resist spells this round;
• The Fortify Spirit magical power was added, granting two free dice to resist spells so long as the caster has at least 1 Will point remaining; 
• The Protection of the Valar grants complete immunity to hostile spells and special rules to one unit for a round; and
• If you get a 6 on a die you actually spent (the previous dice are free, so they don't do this), you get the Will point back (High Elf/Galadhrim Stormcallers had this power when casting spells, now everyone has it when resisting spells).

In many ways, these changes have made successfully casting magic a lot harder (not that the casting is any harder, just getting it to stick), though there are trades - Resistant to Magic doesn't appear on very many units (notable exception for Lorien characters and THE SHIRE!!!), Heroic Resolve isn't available to everyone and comes at the cost of Might (Might that could have been spent winning a fight or calling a Heroic Move on a turn when you need to decide how the combats are arranged), and the two Magical Powers we mentioned are incredibly rare (Gandalf the White and Galadriel, Lady of Light have Fortify Spirit, while only Gandalf the Grey has Protection of the Valar). Still, magic has changed a bit since the old days, making the ability to resist spells a bit easier (and changing our theories from our previous post slightly).

The addition of Heroically Channelled spells, however, has made the greatest difference in the magic system - since all casters have a limited Might store, whether or not to channel a magical power is a big decision (since it costs you something later in the game to do something now). Ergo, the question should be asked: should I channel or is the basic version good enough? The answer is "it depends." Let's see how...

Spells to ALWAYS Heroically Channel

The spells in this category should be heroically channelled all the time - this is predominantly because they'll save you Will in the long-term, making your casters last long or do more in later rounds. Keep in mind you may not NEED to cast these in a game, but if you do cast them, channel them.

• Blinding Light – since Blinding Light begins as a Temporary spell, it’ll require that you need to cast it every turn in order for the archery protection to work. If you’re facing a team with archery, you want this to go up once and you want it to work for the rest of the game. So, we Heroically Channel it to make it do that. Generally speaking, you should pass it with a single dice (everyone casts it on a 2+), but you may occasionally require a Might to get it to work – if you want to avoid being down 2 Might (or if you don’t have 2 Might - Cirdan, I'm looking at you!), use 2 Will to all-but-guarantee that it works. NOTE: if playing the Ill Met By Moonlight scenario against a team that doesn’t have the Cave Dweller rule on its archers, be sure to cast this on the turn when you would have been in range of your opponent’s archery per the scenario rules (otherwise, your opponent can shoot at you normally while you can’t shoot back at him).
• Drain Courage (Courage 5+ targets) / Wither (Strength 4+ targets) – Because basically everyone who has Drain Courage also has Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil, all models within 12” (or 18”) of the caster are going to be Courage -1. Therefore, you only need your opponent to get down to Courage 2-3 in order to be unlikely to charge Terror models and be unlikely to stay in the fight when their force is broken. If you’re Courage 5+, you’re looking at 2-5 turns of casting the regular version of Drain Courage (which will drain you a lot faster than it drains him). By Heroically Channelling it, not only do save yourself a few turns of casting, but you can burn up Might points (to say nothing of Will points) that your target has to keep from being rendered impotent quicker. Even if the channeled version is blocked, it’ll still burn through valuable resources, making the next spell (Drain Courage or something worse, like Transfix) more likely to succeed. Likewise with Wither, a Strength 4 model (or heck, a Strength 6 model) might be able to carve through your D6 front line with ease – reducing him by D3 Strength for the rest of the game will have major dividends (and save you an additional round of casting). NOTE: both of these spells boost the penalty to D3 points instead of just 1 point - the nature of D3 (instead of D3+1) is that sometimes your Heroic Channelling won't do anything, as you'll get a 1-2 on the die and still only reduce the target's profile by 1 point (just as if you hadn't Heroically Channelled). Generally speaking, you'll get better value from it, but it's still to be expected sometimes.

Spells to SOMETIMES Heroically Channel

Magical powers that appear in this list have good channelled bonuses - but they're very situational. Most of the damage-oriented spells appear here (either that do damage themselves or that augment the damage of someone else) and the reason for that is simple: sometimes upping the Strength of an attack doesn't get you anything. Still others provide good basic versions of the spell and the channeled version provides something useful (but only against certain foes).

• Banishment – very few models have Banishment, and those that do can use it to great effect in taking out Spirit models. Like Chill Soul (which we’ll cover in a moment), you deal a Wound (or D3 Wounds when channelled - recall what we said about increasing a value from 1 to D3 above) to your target with this spell. In my opinion, the number of Wounds and Fate points the target has determines whether you channel this spell: channel-worthy targets include those with:
• Spirit models with a high Wound count – like a Balrog (though he's Resistant to Magic);
• Spirit models with a high Fate count – like most builds of the Witch-King, or
• Spirit models with both high Fate and high Wounds – like the Dark Lord Sauron.
• Bladewrath – in general, a Strength 6 character will do just fine against most of his targets. While getting to Strength 10 is awesome, it’s really only necessary against Defense 7+ targets (since Defense 7-8 is wounded by Strength 6 on 5s as opposed to 3s with Strength 10 and a similar situation is present for Defense 9-10 targets). Against Defense 7+ targets, you're going to improve someone else’s To Wound roll by 2 points for 1 Might point (which is worth it, so long as they have Might points of their own to win the fight and save a crappy To Wound roll). Against most targets, though, the marginal difference between Strength 6 and Strength 10 is small (or non-existent), so it's not always worth it to channel.
• Chill Soul – this spell is weird in that the channeled version doesn’t do anything more than the regular spell - it just increases its range. While additional range is generally not necessary, it’s very helpful when you’re near the end of a strategic mission and someone is running a model for your board edge to escape and get points OR an enemy model is sitting alone on an objective. Sniping these models can mean the difference between winning and losing and if your base range doesn’t do it, the added range might be able to make all the difference. I would NOT cast this at the beginning of the game just because the enemy happens to be within the extended range and outside the normal range – your Might point is far too necessary without knowing how the game is shaping up.
• Command/Compel/Immobilize/Transfix – While these spells have been argued to have been munged the most by the new rules (alongside Fury – more on that later in this post), the core reason for casting these spells remains the same: keep a powerful model from being able to kill anything this round. While killing the nerfed model has gotten harder, the inability to use Active abilities (e.g. Lord of the West, the Oakenshield, One Final Blow), the inability to call Heroic Actions (like Heroic Strike if they’re trying to win the fight or Heroic Defense if they’re trying to not die), and the inability to make any Strikes if you win is incredible. I recommend you channel this spell ONLY on heroes with Fight 4 or less and Attacks 2 or less, as cutting these in half (rounded up) will mean the target is reduce to no better than F2 A1 (which is ALMOST what Transfix used to be). For some armies, it might be alright to cast against heroes with Fight 5/6 and Attacks 1-2 (end result of F3 A1) if their base units have Fight 4 or higher (Isengard, for example), as you’ll still have the higher Fight value and the target can’t call Heroic Actions (like that oh-so-precious-Heroic-Strike).
• Collapse Rocks – there’s really only one time you heroically channel this magical power: when there is more than one person near a piece of rocky terrain (or on a rocky map). No further explanation required (though I will say that generally speaking I always cast Sorcerous Blast instead of this spell – more on that shortly). Since Gandalf the Grey is the only person currently to have this spell (and he casts it the same as Sorcerous Blast with a shorter range), the only reason to cast this spell normally is if you’re targeting someone near a rocky terrain feature and you don’t want him to move or get knocked Prone. This doesn’t happen very often (perhaps only to prevent you from hitting a friendly model or risk pushing a fragile target out of charge range), but it can happen.
• Enrage Beast – This spell is simple: boost the Courage and offensive stats of a friendly beast model and at the end of the round, they take a hit. While this could mean sacrificing a model (a 1 Wound Wild Warg, for example), it could also augment a multi-wound model (a Bat Swarm, Giant Spider, or Cave Troll) to become even better. Since the only character who has this spell right now is in the Moria list, you’re likely to only see it in a mono-Moria army (or maybe a Moria-Angmar army if you wanted to augment a Wild Warg Chieftain). The trade, of course, is whether you actually NEED the boosted stats to be +3 or +1 (at a point, additional Attacks, Strength, and Fight value only help a Cave Troll so much). For Bats/Giant Spiders (and Wild Wargs if you’re willing to potentially sacrifice them), I recommend the boosted version every time, but with Trolls you want a bit more thought.
• Protection of the Valar – Let's start off by saying that against some lists (mono-Uruk-Hai-Isengard lists are the big ones), this spell won't even come into play. When you do need it, the normal version of this spell is great – immunity from magical powers and special rules for the caster or a friendly figure within 3” of the caster. Yes, I’ll take that. Situationally, Heroically Channelling this spell works well, since you can apply the same buff to all friendly models within 3” – but only if there are enough people within 3” (or special rules/magic spells that are targeting your men) that matter.
• Sorcerous Blast/Wrath of Bruinen – Both of these spells work the same way: do damage to certain people at a given Strength (and increase that Strength value by 1 if you channel it). The reason this is a “sometimes” channeled spell is because of the nature of the To Wound table – sometimes increasing Strength doesn’t matter. Nothing else to say really (though I will say that improving the Strength of these spells – even if it makes a difference – depends greatly on what the requirement To Wound is, since only improving the Strength by 1 basically would be the same as spending a Might point to wound the target if you just cast it normally).
• Your Staff is Broken – Apart from the fact that very few units have staffs to begin with, you need to determine if a Strength 6 hit will do anything to the caster (and whether it’s worth spending one of your precious Might points on it). Since magic casters with this spell have several spells they can Heroically Channel, I don’t think this one ever wins the bid UNLESS the target is very close to death. If you’re targeting a Moria Blackshield Shaman’s staff, you’re likely to wound him with a Strength 6 hit and you can finish him off with another damage spell (or archery) pretty easily after that if you burn through his Fate point (possibly one of his Wounds if the Fate point fails). Alternatively, if you charge him, he'll be unarmed (having lost his only weapon).

Spells to NEVER Heroically Channel

Before we get into the list, keep the following in mind - many of these spells have "good" bonuses when heroically channelled (or at least, they appear to be "good"). The reason these spells are down here in this category is because while the benefits of these spells are real and occasionally useful, they aren't (in my humble opinion) worth spending a Might point to make better.

• Aura of Command – Most of the guys who have this spell are in armies that already have good Courage. As such, I don’t normally cast this spell (though see the Arnor lists in a past post for reasons you might with Cirdan). The benefit you get from Heroically Channelling this spell is extending the radius to 12” instead of 6” away from the caster – you need to be really spread out and worried about falling Courage tests to want that. Not worth it to me when you could be channeling something else (or calling a timely Heroic Move).
• Aura of Dismay – Like Aura of Command, this spell also increases the radius of the Terror buff that the spell provides (12” instead of 6”). While this might also be useful in a select number of occasions, this spell tends to be difficult to cast by those who have it, so spending Might to get the additional range MIGHT make the difference between getting the spell off or not (or spending a lot more Will than you want to get it off). The exception I draw here is if you have Thranduil, Lord of the Woodland Realm with the Circlet of Kings (since you automatically cast the spell without having to spend Will). The argument for still not Heroically Channelling this spell with Thranduil is that your Palace Guard/Mirkwood Cavalry are probably packed into the 6” radius it normally provides in order to benefit from the various special rules that make these guys awesome (so a 12” radius provides nice insurance for other people, but isn’t THAT necessary for the strategy).
• Black Dart – I used to love this spell: have a Ringwraith deal a Strength 9 hit to someone (basically always wounding on 3s). The issue, of course, is that even if you cast it successfully (often expensive to do), you still need 3s to Wound (so one out of every three times you’ll fail). Because Heroically Channelling this spell doesn’t make the hit an automatic Wound, you run the risk of not being able to get the spell to work when you channel it. Even if it does wound, one out of three times you’ll STILL only deal 1 Wound (when the D3 roll gives you a 1 or 2). In this case, you’ve again wasted a Might point. When you combine the probability of falling to Wound (getting a 1 or 2 on the To Wound roll) AND the probability of not getting 2-3 Wounds on the target (getting a 1 or 2 on the D3 roll), about half the time (55%) you should have kept the Might point and not used it. Ergo, I don’t really think you should.
• Call Winds – Call Winds is a great spell and you should ALWAYS cast this spell with your Storm Callers (no matter what other spells you have). Being able to push any figure (regardless of Strength) backwards D6” and knocking them prone is great – especially since they’ll need to spend half their movement standing up next turn and then likely move the distance you pushed them back with the rest of their movement (getting back to where they started after yet another turn of moving). Upping this to 2D6” makes the impact of the spell greater, but it’s a negligible bonus. Sure, you might add another half turn of moving, but you’ll only be able to do that once. I’d rather keep the Might point and save it to make sure spell goes off (or call a needed Heroic Move).
• Curse – since The Necromancer of Dol Guldur got this spell back in the errata, I have to review it. :) Basically, it's a good idea against foes with 2+ Fate points (especially if those Fate points are reroll-able). Still, even if you don't channel it, your basically doing a Wound to the target hero, since you're depriving them of a Fate points, so I'm not sure that there's that much of a gain in channeling (except against foes with Elven rings).
• Drain Courage (against Courage 1-4 models) or Wither (against Strength 1-3 models) – as mentioned above, casting Drain Courage against Courage 5+ models can take a long time if you’re just casting it normally (so channeling it saves you time and resources). If your target is Courage 4 or Courage 3 (which becomes Courage 3 or Courage 2 with Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil), you don’t need to cast it more than once at its regular setting (maybe twice if you have models in your army that have the Blades of the Dead rule) in order to see the effects of the spell work. Likewise with Wither, while a Strength 3 model could be reduced to Strength 1, functionally a Strength 2 model is just as impotent – not much to be gained really. A Strength 4 model, on the other hand, can still do decent damage when reduced to Strength 3 (so channeling helps against him and those with higher Strength values).
• Enchanted Blades – channeling this spell allows you to get +1 to your To Wound rolls. Frankly the only person who should be heroically channeling this spell is Celeborn (as Cirdan should use his Might point to either heroically channel Blinding Light or successfully cast Aura of Dismay, and Galadhrim Storm Callers should always be casting Call Winds) – and getting +1 To Wound isn’t THAT necessary for him. Frankly, I’d rather two-hand with the Elven-made Hand-and-a-Half Sword, save the Might point to turn my 5 into a 6, and then reroll any failed To Wound rolls with a +1 bonus (vs. a +2 bonus and be down 1 additional Might). Like Heroic Strength in a previous discussion, I don’t see the reason to cast this spell as a channeled spell.
• Flameburst – This spell does a Strength 6 hit and can be augmented to add the Set Ablaze special rule. While Set Ablaze is good in its own right, the spell is hard to cast by most of the people who have it, so channeling it to get a damage-over-time element runs the risk of it not working when you cast it. To me, the risk is too much (and since Saruman casts Sorcerous Blast more easily than Flameburst and they basically do the same damage, not sure how often I’d channel it with him).
• Fury – Fury got the most change from its original Legions of Middle-Earth era version, as it only gives you a 6+ save when it’s Heroically Channelled. As tempting as a 6+ save is, back in the Legions era (before we had options for a 5+ save), I learned very quickly in my Moria army that a 6+ save isn’t a save at all – it’s nice to have when it works, but it almost never does. As a result, I don’t count on it anymore and feel it’s better to save the Might point for making sure the spell goes off (or calling a Heroic Move late in the game).
• Instill Fear/Terrifying Aura – As fun as this spell is, making models roll three dice and take the lowest two CAN have great benefits but often times the Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil that is often present on models with Instill Fear is enough to make people fail it (and most models who can’t automatically pass Courage tests will fail Courage unless they’re Elves for Terrifying Aura). Most of the time, adding another die to the equation and picking the lowest won’t change what’s already in play. Those who are paranoid about being charged are welcome to channel it, but I don't see the point).
• Renew/Blessing of the Valar – Most models that have more than 1 Wound have 2 Wounds. Most models that have any amount of Fate points have only 1 Fate. As such, restoring 1 Wound (or 1 Fate) is just fine. In the rare event where you need to restore 2 Wounds on someone (or 3 Wounds if they’re an Ent or more than 1 Fate point), you CAN Heroically Channel it, but there’s not a lot of point to it. Even if you do channel it (either spell), some of the time you’ll still only restore 1 Wound/Fate point (because that’s how D3 rolls work).
• Sap Will – This works similarly to Renew/Strengthen Will: because most models have 1-2 Will points, the difference between removing D3 Will or D6 Will is incredibly marginal and not very worth it (and sometimes it will remove the same amount). In fact, it really only makes a difference when cast against models with the Will of Evil special rule (e.g. Ringwraiths, Castellans of Dol Guldur, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur) or 6+ Will points (because most people will spend most of their Will points just trying to resist the spell).
• Shatter – Breaking weapons is fun. Breaking the only weapon of a power hero is even more fun. Dealing damage to him when you break his weapon is great, but if you don’t get the spell off, what does it matter? Personally, while a 3+ isn’t that hard to get, if you want to cast the spell three times, you probably need to save the Might point for casting the spell. If you manage to get it off 3 times without needing to boost it, call a Heroic Move when the time is right.
• Shroud of Shadows – This spell is already incredibly niche. While the normal version is quite nice (especially for protecting a model who is trying to hold an objective, run off a board edge, or sneak up on an exposed auric piece). The channeled bonus doesn’t really help you unless you’re charged (which the normal spell does a good job of preventing: half the Fight value of the people attacking the target. This has great benefits if you’re casting it on a target who has already been charged, but not so much if you’re casting it first.
• Strengthen Will – This spell is different from Renew or Blessing of the Valar (see above) and is best cast at the beginning of the game. Why? Because unlike Renew and Blessing of the Valar, you can give people Will points who didn’t have Will points at the beginning of the game OR give extra Will points to people (beyond their starting amount). While I’m not sure that Heroically Channelling this is all that necessary, there are a few cases where I think it would be very helpful – extra Will on Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli/Boromir in a Fellowship list with Gandalf the Grey when you’re fighting Ringwraiths? Additional Will on Denethor in a game where Boromir is not present and Gandalf the White is? Yes, this is very, VERY useful. I don’t think you Heroically Channel this spell, though, because you're still only looking at getting D3 Will (and if you've stuck with us this far, you know what that means...).
• Tremor – For starters, Tremor is hard to cast and I think Shatter is the better spell anyway on the Moria Blackshield Shaman. Assuming you do choose to cast this spell (and that you cast it successfully without the Might point), adding extra length to the line extending away from the target COULD make a difference, but unless you’re extending it down a battle line, you’re not going to get much benefit from it (how many people do they have lined up, anyway?).

Spells that you CANNOT Heroically Channel

There are some heroes who have spells but don't have Heroic Channelling - often this is because they don't start with any Might. It's important to note that even if these heroes could be gifted Might, none of the characters who have these spells have Heroic Channelling as a heroic action (so even if they got Might somehow, they couldn't cast the channelled versions). I will note that all of these spells have great channelled versions - ones I would probably channel these every chance I got.

• Paralyze – while Paralyze has one of the best heroic channeling boosts available, Barrow-Wights don’t have Heroic Channelling. Ergo, we can’t use it. Such a shame, as you can get Might in Contest of Champions if they manage to kill something (which isn’t impossible, since they could Paralyze their target, kill him by wounding against his Courage stat, then get some Might and channel another Paralyze spell).
• Refreshing Song – perhaps the only spell that has a better heroic channeling boost than Paralyze, Refreshing Song restores all lost Wounds to a target. The only characters with this spell are Goldberry and Tom Bombadil, neither of whom can kill people in Contest of Champions and they can’t get Might back from Bill the Pony or Ori the Dwarf (like some heroes can). Ergo, as great as this is, it can’t be used.

With all this said, how has magic for Ringwraiths in particular changed with the new magic rules? Here are a few things:

• The categories of heroes hasn't changed at all (though Theoden is no longer in the "0 Will with 2+ Wounds category) - approach targeting them exactly as done before (with the possible exception of Heroically Channeling Drain Courage to save yourself some Will);
• Your go-to spells will still be Drain Courage and Transfix, though some of your Ringwraiths (the Witch-King of Angmar and the Dark Marshal) might find use in Instill Fear, while all Ringwraiths are likely to avoid casting Sap Will (since the difficulty went up);
• Black Dart factories (the Dwimmerlaik and the Undying) are a lot less effective, since you need to pay Will to trigger special rules on these guys. While Black Darts CAN be useful in very niche circumstances (0 Will with 1 Wound), I don't generally trust them enough to use them anymore;
• Assuming you've gotten the max Might possible, Heroic Marches and Heroic Moves are often more effective than Heroic Channels - most of your spells don't need it OR are risky enough to try to cast without using Might to boost the result.

If you have thoughts on magic, I’d love to hear them. If you think I erred in evaluating any of these (and not just “well, it’s really cool when it happens”), I’d love to hear those too. In our final post for now on general observations, we’ll be covering weapon swaps – which units benefit from new weapons in each of the five different categories. Until then, happy hobbying!